INEE Working Group on Education and Fragility

About the INEE Working Group on Education and Fragility

The INEE Working Group on Education and Fragility serves as an inter-agency mechanism to coordinate diverse initiatives and catalyze collaborative action on education and fragility. The Working Group is comprised of 20 institutions, engaged in advocacy, research, programming and policy development relating to education in fragile states:

  • Academy for Educational Development (AED), represented by Mary Joy Pigozzi
  • Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), representative TBD
  • CARE USA, represented by Jonathan Miller
  • Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), represented by Julia Dicum
  • The Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, represented by Jacqueline Mosselson
  • Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institute, represented by Rebecca Winthrop
  • CfBT Education Trust represented by Susy Ndaruhutse
  • Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by Corien Sieps
  • Education Development Center (EDC), represented by Cornelia Janke (co-chair)
  • The European Commission (EC), represented by Emily Oldmeadow
  • Fast Track Initiative (FTI) Secretariat, represented by Alberto Begué
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), represented by Rüdiger Blumör
  • Reach Out to Asia (ROTA), Qatar Foundation, represented by Pascal Siegel
  • Save the Children Alliance, represented by Emily Echessa
  • UK Department for International Development (DFID), represented by Sally Gear
  • UNESCO Center at the University of Ulster, represented by Alan Smith
  • UNESCO-IIEP, represented by Lyndsay Bird (chair)
  • UNICEF, represented by Jordan Naidoo
  • US Agency for International Development (USAID), represented by Yolande Miller-Grandvaux
  • The World Bank, represented by Joel Reyes

The Working Group is supported by the INEE Coordinator for Education and Fragility, Kerstin Tebbe (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)), who is hosted by UNESCO in Paris.

  • Please click here for the Working Group Terms of Reference.
  • Please click here for the Note from the Working Group on Education and Fragility Terminology.
  • Please click here for more information on the Working Group's major achievements in 2008.
  • Please click here for more information on the Working Group's major achievements in 2009.

Working Group Objectives and Work Plan

The INEE Working Group on Education and Fragility aims to fulfill following objectives:

Strengthening the Evidence Base

The INEE Working Group is developing the evidence base for education and fragility by fostering research, particularly by producing country data on the relationship between education and fragility based on a range of country studies and using a newly developed analytical framework of education and fragility. Four major studies – Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia and Liberia – will be completed in summer 2010, complemented by a synthesis report, that will summarize lessons learned from these four cases for policymakers, practitioners, donors and researchers.

  • Please click here for more information on the research project Situational Analyses of Education and Fragility.

The Working Group also supports the development of research studies, for instance the European Commission Study on Governance Challenges for Education in Fragile Situations. Based on eight case-studies (Aceh, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia, Somalia and Southern Sudan), this research sets to contribute to a better understanding of key governance challenges facing education in different fragile situations, highlighting implications and making recommendations for external support to the education sector.

  • Please click here for more information on the European Commission Study on Governance Challenges for Education in Fragile Situations.

The Working Group has also endorsed a capacity development issue paper that was prepared as a joint project of the European Training Foundation (ETF) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). This paper aims to determine particular capacity development needs in education in contexts of fragility. It first examines the discussions on fragility in terms of various categorisations of phases, types and causation. Fragile states are understood as those that lack both capacity and willingness to perform key government functions for the benefit of all. Education can be both a cause and an effect of fragility, with its own problems of legitimacy, of contributing to conflict as well as peace, of having extremes of inequality and of experiencing weaknesses in governance. The main argument of this paper is that ‘capacity development’ in education in fragile states has to focus on state-building at all levels, country, regional and international.

  • Please click here for more information on the issue paper on capacity development for education systems in situations of fragility.

Informing Decision-Making Processes on Effective Education Funding Modalities in Situations of Fragility

The INEE Working Group provides new analysis and guidance for assessing and implementing appropriate and effective financing modalities for education in situations of fragility. Since 2009 the Working Group is developing a guide to serve as a tool to succinctly inform country-level partners of the range of financing modalities available for financing education. The "INEE Reference Guide on External Education Financing" is meant to enable national decision-makers in low-income countries, including those in fragile situations, to better understand the ways in which donors provide education assistance, how various funding mechanisms work and why donors choose one funding mechanism over another to support education. In addition, it is hoped that this publication will help increase education policy-makers’ awareness of the types of external assistance used to fill gaps in domestic education funding at the field level. The Reference Guide is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

  • Please click here for more information on the "INEE Reference Guide on External Education Financing".

Advocating for Policy Change

The Working Group is continuing to support research and policy reports related to understanding education’s role in conflict and fragility, including the EFA Global Monitoring Report and the World Bank's World Development Report. The Working Group also undertakes ongoing outreach with relevant agencies and organizations to raise the profile of education and fragility and to ensure that issues related to education and fragility are incorporated in upcoming data collection, analysis and reports. The Working Group also advocates for policy commitments to and mobilization of funds for education as a mechanism to mitigate fragility and for effective educational programming in situations of fragility.

  • Please click here for more information on the Working Group's work on advocating for policy change.